What the oil crisis taught me about driving an electric vehicle

When I was a high school senior in 1979, I hopped in my (still new to me) 1974 Ford Mustang II, with my first driver license in my wallet, and pulled into a long line at the gas station. As I sat there hoping they still had gasoline when I got to the pump and cursing the oil companies that were gouging us at an unheard of price of $1.00/gallon, I thought, “Why can’t they make electric cars?”

Nearly 45 years later, I’m driving an electric car.

Getting my first driver license during an oil crisis taught me lessons that I’ve carried throughout my driving life. They are especially helpful when I ditched gasoline.

The biggest fear of new EV drivers is range anxiety. With internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, we don’t think about range because there is always a gas station a few blocks away. After a few minutes fueling and getting a 44-ounce soft drink and a Slim Jim, we’re back on the road. But during the oil crisis, you can’t trust there will be a gas station with gas nearby. In states where there were odd-even days, you might not be able to buy gas at all. So, range became an issue with gasoline cars.

I had to pay attention to range with my Mustang II. MPG ratings weren’t published when the car came out. As I remember, I got around 17 MPG on a good week. With…